64 MEMOIR OF COLONEL TUPPER.
and he left the ship at midnight with his favorite company of grenadiers of No. 8 and a few soldiers of No. 1, landing in the cove of Remolinos, where he surprised a neighbouring battery, making prisoners the few artillerymen who garrisoned it. From them he learnt that in the battery of San Gallan, which occupied a strong position on the road from Lacao to Chacao, there were two officers and fifty men of the insurgents, and instantly directing himself towards it by a road almost impassable, as it was very boggy and intersected by fallen trees, he reached the battery at five o'clock a. m. Advancing alone with the guide he perceived that no sentry was guarding the land side, "and throwing himself on the enemy with intrepidity he managed to take them prisoners, not one, except an officer, escaping. In the attainment of this object no more than twenty soldiers could keep up with their commander, owing to the narrow- ness of the road, and also because it was necessary that those in advance should push forward, so as to arrive before daylight. On our part there was no loss whatever, and on that of the enemy only four wounded. This undertaking being completed, Lieut. - Colonel Tupper marched towards the port of Chacao, and took the battery there, which was abandoned by the enemy. On receiving intelligence of these opera- tions we made sail at eleven o'clock a. m., and at five in the afternoon anchored in the said port."*
Colonel Aldunate having landed with the remainder of the troops, the insurgents were reduced to submis- sion without further difficulty, as the natives in great numbers presented themselves, and offered to act
- Extract translated from Colonel Aldunate's dispatch. Of the dispatches,
in which we know that honorable mention was made of Colonel Tupper's name, this only has accidentally reached us.
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